Friday, December 12, 2008

Where Kittensoft Reflects upon her Current State of (un) Employment


SCORPIO (Oct.24-Nov.22)
“You fear you are on the edge of disaster but are, in fact, on the threshold of success. You are attempting a difficult task. Others, faced with a challenge of this magnitude, might well give up in despair. Your fortitude will bring victory.”

I found this horoscope in a newspaper a little while ago, and though I don’t normally pay attention to newspaper horoscopes, this little statement particularly resonates with me at the moment. It sounds very similar to the content of a pair of tarot readings that a good friend of mine had done for me over the past few months. So what, you are probably asking, is Kittensoft yapping on about? Here I shall elaborate:

I am, at the moment, lacking what is known as a “Job”. I have been trying to get somewhere with graphic design and illustration for the past couple of years, only to end up back in minimum-wage retail. Seeing as I’ve had about 8 years of post-secondary education at this point, I’m not really a happy camper about this situation  Alas! I could’ve probably become a doctor by this point if I’d have taken the right courses (and was a tad better at math…^^;)

At any rate, after I quit my latest retail job about a couple months ago, I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t go back into doing any more retail work unless it was somehow related to design (eg-a print shop). Generally what ends up happening when I work retail is that I put most of my design/artwork on the side and forget about actually continuing to try to get a job in that area. I find retail work, especially customer service and the awkward schedules, to be incredibly frustrating (and worth way more than $8.75 an hour) and when I go home the thought of doing anything which requires more effort (eg-looking for other work) just puts me in a shitty mood. As well, I’m quite tired of getting nowhere with my skills, and even moreso of still only earning minimum wage after 8 years of post-secondary ed.

Now this doesn’t mean I won’t be occasionally applying for other non-art related jobs....though I have pretty much been limiting this to office work (eg-data entry/file sorting/things along those lines). I find that type of work infinitely more relaxing than retail, and it would bring me quite a bit more money at any rate (and on a side note, at least I’d be able to expand my computer and office-related skills).

However, considering most “easy to obtain” jobs are in retail, I may end up going rather broke during this holiday season (I still live with my parents though so at least I don’t have to worry about food or rent). Though frankly, if I go broke I think a lot of it would be my own damn fault due to my hideously out of control hoarding/shopping addiction (heh….not gonna go into that here....^^;)

At any rate, once I made this decision I realized I have absolutely no idea what I’m gonna do next in terms of building my art/design career. Generally I’ve just been searching for these types of jobs and assignments on places like Craigslist and Deviantart, with little to no luck (sadly many of the jobs have ended up being scams). I really had no idea what other resources were available to me, so I started asking around for tips (from friends, former professors, fellow Deviant-artists, etc).

I ended up getting quite a few interesting responses and suggestions, but still wasn’t sure where to start. So in my confusion I decided to make a Magical, Awesome List. I’d like to note here that lists are sexy. If something’s written down, chances are I’ll probably end up doing it at some point just for the Joy of being able to Cross It Off my List. (*cough*neurotic*cough*). And I came to a realization upon looking at my Magical List, which is that:

I have an absolute assload of resources/tips available to find the kind of career I’m looking for, and if I go through that entire list and DON’T have a job by the end of it, I’d be suffering from some extraordinarily bizarre bad luck.

So that’s my next step now. And this time, considering I have made myself a promise not to allow myself to fall back on retail, I believe I’ll be putting much more effort into finding a design/art job. I have the resources, I have the time, and something tells me I’m not gonna fail this time (even if I have pretty much $2 left in my bank account by the time I get a job. Though hopefully it won’t take that long…ack…)

Which brings me to my closing statement:

Why on Earth am I still typing here when I should be going through the resources on my list?

So I shall bid farewell for today…and hopefully in my next entry I shall have some Exciting Job News!

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